WD Green Drive powers down during read/write

[TheLetterJay]

As the title says. Anytime I'm reading/writing extensively to a WD Green Drive I'm using, it'll randomly power itself down during the process and turn itself back on a few seconds later. This seems to happen during massive downloads.

Two examples: ESO was streaming a 35GB download, it would randomly turn itself off midways during the patch. It forced me to change to the blue drive just to download.

Another being currently. Steam is trying to update a few games on that drive. During the downloads, it'll randomly turn off for a few seconds and power back up.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there TheLetterJay,

I am sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive. Even though WD Green has power saving characteristics, it shouldn't really park its head during read/write.
It may be a good idea to back up any crucial data that is stored on the drive until you sort this out.
Apart from that, you can test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool. The results will show its overall health status.

WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=2kaZrZ

Keep me posted on this
D_Know_WD

 

[TheLetterJay]

That's the thing. It seems to be fine as far as SMART tests go. It even works when reading games and running programs off of it. But downloading large files onto it causes it to disconnect itself from the system and reconnect moments later.

 

[D_Know_WD]

So it passes both short and extended test right?
I guess you can try attaching the drive to another SATA port with different cables.
If the issue persists, it may be a good idea to contact WD's Support either by e-mail or phone.

WD's Support: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=MXOVEU

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

 

[TheLetterJay]

I'm using a fairly new SATA cable and did swap the ports on the board. I contacted WD about the issue and all they said they could do is send me another one and that it was just 'bad luck' that the Green Drives are the best on the market. Yet, the first Green drive I had the motor spun off its axis and made a horrid grinding noise unless positioned in a certain way. Now this one randomly cuts itself off during heavy read/write cycles.


If it means anything I am using RAID instead of AHCI, but from what I understand that shouldn't have any effect on the matter.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Sorry you had such experience with WD drives.
It will not hurt to set it to AHCI. If the drive powers down again, then just send it back and get another one.

D_Know_WD

 

[TheLetterJay]

I should also mention before this I did have an issue with a previous WD Green drive where the motor loosened from its axis and made a horrid grinding noise. WD sent me another green drive so that I could move everything over and send it back. Well, I did clone the drive. Could this be the cause?

 

[popatim]

No.

 

[TheLetterJay]

None of this makes any sense. Random disconnections on large file transfers.

 

[TheLetterJay]

So I used CrystalDisk.....

http://i.imgur.com/Kb2e0r4.jpg

 

[D_Know_WD]

If the last column shows RAW values, then this should mean that there were some bad sectors on the drive that were reallocated.

D_Know_WD

 

[TheLetterJay]

I disabled EuP 2013 in the BIOs (had no idea it was even on) and it does prevent the drive from shutting off and not being able to be turned back on at all. Previously when it did it the only way to boot it back up was to hard reset the system. Now when it does it I can simply reconnect it by either discovering it in the devices menu or reconnecting the SATA cable. This still doesn't explain the issue itself though.

 

[ccampy]

Try setting windows power setting to high performance mode

 

[TheLetterJay]

That's not why. I just can't understand why it only does it if Steam is downloading to it.

I could do a 200GB transfer from it to another drive and it'll work fine. But the moment a DL starts it goes insane.

 

[TheLetterJay]

Hopefully this is of some use. Just recently I had a BSOD involving the Intel Matrix Storage Driver.

 

[TheLetterJay]

Well. My new drive is here. The same WD Green Drive and I need to send the defective back to prevent a charge on my account. The thing is, should I clone it?

First Drive: Motor malfunction
Second Drive (Current One): Bad sector count and rising

Is there something I'm doing wrong or just bad luck?

 

[D_Know_WD]

It is not really a good idea to clone a dying hard drive with bad sectors. The cloning software will make exactly the same copy on the new drive(clone already corrupt data). This is why, a clean install is always advisable.
Anyway, in case you decide to clone it, you can use Acronis True Image WD Edition: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=UlUqW3

I don't really think that you have done something wrong. Maybe it is just bad luck.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD